Breaking Aerith
by Kalta79
Summary: Canon divergent story where Marlene is taken into custody with Aerith by the Turks, and Rude is ordered to let Aerith know who's boss #dominance/submission #explicit sexual content #dub/non con #canon divergent AU 4-9-18 I'll be redoing this story sometime soon


"What's going on?" Rude asked as Reno walked down the hallway towards him. He was shocked to see Tseng lead Marlene into a holding cell.

"We finally caught that Ancient. She had the little girl with her, so we're hoping we can use her as leverage against the Ancient." Reno explained.

Rude was not at all comforted by his partner's answer. He wouldn't have recognized her if not for her strong resemblance to her mother. Rude had lost contact with his baby sister years ago when he became a Turk, and he had felt it was better that way for all concerned. He had kept tabs on her though, and had found out when she died. But he hadn't known her daughter had survived until now.

"That Ancient is quite stubborn and too independent. She knows her value to us, so she thinks she has the upper hand. We're going to let her know we've lost patience with her." Tseng told the Turks at the morning briefing a week later. "Or rather, Rude will."

"Me, sir?" Rude asked in surprise.

"Yes. You'll stay in her cell with her until you get her to submit. Use **any** method you have to, and remind her we still have that little girl captive as well." Tseng continued.

"And what will happen to the little girl?" Rude wanted to know. His niece was the only family he had left now.

"We'll let her go when the Ancient submits." Tseng promised him. "She's of no use to us except for that."

"Don't worry about Mr. Fluffy." Reno told his partner, keeping the scorn out of his voice that he felt for Rude having a cat with such an effeminate name, as they stood outside Aerith's cell. "I'll make sure he's taken care of while you're on assignment. Good luck, buddy."

Rude entered her cell with a box full of not only a couple changes of clothes for him, but some tools to help him deal with her.

"Who are you?" Aerith asked him.

"I ask the questions, not you, Cetra." Rude snapped, getting right into it.

"Oh, the tough guy routine." Aerith smiled condescendingly. "Aren't you guys ever going to think up something new?"

Rude moved quicker than she thought, and she found herself knocked to the floor when he struck her across the face. "You only get told once from now on. I ask the questions, not you."

As Aerith put her hand to her cheek that was burning with pain, she realized that she might be in trouble.

* * *

"Are you going to show us to the Promised Land?" Rude asked Aerith.

"Never!" Aerith vowed as she picked herself up on the floor and backed away from him, getting very worried. She had always believed they would never hurt her. If the gloves were off…Aerith shuddered, knowing what they were capable of.

"Suit yourself, Cetra." Rude told her. "I hope you didn't promise Marlene she'd ever see her family again.

Aerith paled and gasped. "You wouldn't!" Then she looked harder at him as the planet spoke to her. " **You** wouldn't." she repeated.

Rude struck her again before she revealed anything to the hidden cameras. "I don't have to do anything to her, Cetra, I'm here to deal with you."

"My name is Aerith." she said as she started to pick herself up off the floor again.

"Stay down." Rude ordered her, finding himself intrigued by seeing her on all fours.

Aerith paused. Would he hit her again if she got up? "Stay on the floor?"

"That's right, Cetra." Rude replied, standing in front of her.

Aerith looked up at him. "This floor is filthy." she pointed out.

"So wash your hands. You do know how to wash, don't you, Cetra?" Rude asked her condescendingly.

"Of course I do!" she indignantly retorted.

"Show me." he told her.

"Show you…how I wash?" Aerith felt a sudden chill.

"That's right, Cetra." Rude smiled.

Aerith swallowed hard, seeing no hope for leniency in his expression. She went to the sink, still on all fours. She got the washcloth damp with warm water, and started to wash her exposed arms.

"No! Take your clothes off first, then wash!" Rude demanded, holding up a fist when she hesitated.

Aerith fought back tears as she undressed, and her hands weren't quite steady as she started to wash herself.

"You've got a nice body, Cetra." Rude said as he looked her over, feeling excitement build up in himself as she obeyed him and humiliated herself. "But you're not washing yourself properly if you leave some places untouched. Do you want some help?"

"No, I'll do it." Aerith kept her head held down as she finished washing her entire body. She had never expected her captors to strip her of her dignity. "I still won't show you the Promised Land." she muttered.

Rude shook his head a little as her statement brought him back to himself. Why was he so pleased by subjugating her? What the hell was wrong with him? He had a job to do, and he was losing focus.

* * *

" _Get on the bed!" Rude snapped._

 _Aerith hurried onto the bed, and then fearfully waited for his next order._

" _On all fours!" he demanded._

" _Please spare me, Master!" Aerith slowly assumed the position, her whole body shaking._

" _Silence, Cetra!" Rude took his leather belt off and undressed before getting on the bed with Aerith. "Now, what are you?"_

 _Aerith started crying when she realized he wouldn't relent. "I…I'm a filthy whore who ne…needs to be punished." Her voice trembled._

 _Rude smiled. "That's a good girl." He let his leather belt fly, and Aerith cried out in pain as he whipped her until he felt himself harden. "Are you ready to be forgiven?" he asked as he lubed himself up and positioned himself between her legs._

" _Ye…yes, Master." Aerith hung her head down as he forced himself into her ass, uttering small cries during her penance._

" _You're all better now." he declared as he pulled out and gently kissed the small of her back._

Aerith felt herself being slapped and opened her eyes to find herself still naked on the floor, leaning against the bed.

"Wake up, Cetra!" Rude stood over her, and Aerith looked up at him as the dream faded slowly from her mind, finding herself shivering, more from the dream than being a little cold. Would he end up doing that to her? She remembered how her dream self was so pleased by his approval, and shivered again. "Get in the chair!" he ordered her.

"Are you ready to show us the Promised Land yet?" Rude asked her once she was in the chair.

"No, Master." Aerith answered as if still lost in the dream, feeling nervous about what he was going to do.

"I was hoping you'd say that." Rude said, and handcuffed her wrists behind her to the chair, then he realized what she said. "What did you call me?"

"Master." Aerith repeated, wondering why her pulse started quickening when he bound her to the chair.

Something in Rude awakened at that word. "What does that make you, Cetra?" He found himself unfastening his pants in front of her. Aerith stared at the first male member she had ever seen, and tried to struggle in the chair to get away from him, stopping when he struck her again. "Say what you are!"

"I'm a slave." Tears started running down Aerith's face as much as from the pain of the blow as from the shame.

"You're not just any slave, you're my slave, aren't you, Cetra?" Rude lifted her up off the chair enough to straddle the chair beneath her, and put her back down onto his bare lap.

"Yes, Master." Aerith froze as she felt him hard against her, trying to struggle again in vain as his hands started caressing her.

"Do you want to be a good slave and please your Master?" Rude asked her.

Aerith stopped struggling as she realized there was no use. "Yes, Master." She hung her head down as more tears fell.

Rude held Aerith firm as he guided her body to ride him. Aerith held back her cries as he destroyed her maidenhood, and she was unprepared for the pleasure that followed, unable to hold back her cries then. It wasn't just what he was doing to her body, she felt relief by finally submitting to him. Wave after wave of new sensations crashed over her until she found herself floating amongst the stars. Her body sagged against Rude's as she unwillingly came back to the planet.

"Did I please you, Master?" Aerith asked him hopefully.

"Yes, yes you did." Rude was stunned that his most satisfying sexual encounter in recent history was a virgin handcuffed to a chair that he was tasked with dominating.

"How else may I serve you, Master?" Aerith wanted to know.

"Wash us both up." Rude said the first thing that came to mind as he took the handcuffs off.

As Aerith washed him, Rude wondered what he had gotten himself into.

* * *

"Will you lead us to the Promised Land?" Rude asked Aerith.

"No!" Aerith blurted out as she and Rude acted out what had become foreplay for them. She wondered how much longer they had together…Shinra wouldn't wait forever, so the clock was ticking, and she hadn't forgotten about Marlene, but the Promised Land could not be desecrated by Shinra. Aerith obediently cried out in pain as she felt the expected blow for her refusal.

"Penalty time, Cetra!" Rude told Aerith to get on her knees and unfastened his pants. She opened her mouth so he could shove his member in it. It had taken her some clumsy attempts, but she was getting the hang of pleasing him. "Good job, Cetra." he told her when she finished.

"Master?" Aerith said tentatively as she cleaned him up.

"Yes, Cetra?" Rude replied as he took the rest of his clothes off for their next act.

"Could you claim me fully this time?" she asked.

"If you're ready for it." Rude told her.

"Yes, Master." Aerith happily responded as she got on the bed.

"Be quiet, and don't say anything unless you're asked." Cloud told Tifa as they put their janitorial outfits on.

"I know what I'm doing, I've been doing covert gigs a lot longer than you have." Tifa snapped back at him as she bound and gagged the two janitors behind the dumpster, not happy that he was so gung-ho on rescuing another woman.

It took them a while to find the floor with the prison cells, and they had some close calls nearly getting discovered, but luckily they overheard chat about the Ancient, and found the row of cells she was supposed to be in.

"We'll just try every one." Cloud said, and they proceeded down the aisle, opening every door.

"Well, I'll be fucked!" Tifa exclaimed suddenly, trying not to laugh at her choice of words, and Cloud hurried over to see what she saw.

His jaw dropped as he saw Aerith naked and on all fours on the bed, her wrists tied together to the footboard with a leather belt. A large dark-skinned naked man was on his knees behind her, and he was reaching forward to fondle her breasts as she moaned softly in pleasure.

"Take me now, Master, please." Aerith begged.

"Untie her!" Cloud suddenly shouted as he drew his Buster sword, unable to take the sight of his angel being defiled any longer.

"What in the hell do you think you're doing, Cloud?!" Aerith snapped at him as Rude blinked in surprise at their sudden unexpected audience, and threw a blanket over Aerith to cover her.

"Rescuing you from this beast!" Cloud replied, slowly advancing towards the bed as Rude's hands clenched into fists.

"It's consensual, buddy." Rude told him.

"He's telling you the truth, Cloud, I asked him to do this to me. I was just about to fully submit myself to him, and you ruined the moment. Leave us!" Aerith glared at Cloud.

Tifa stepped forward and put her hand on Cloud's and forced him to lower the sword. "Are you sure, Aerith?" she asked quietly.

"Yes!" Aerith stated emphatically.

"She knows what she's doing, Cloud. Let's go and at least see what else we can find out while we're here." Tifa told him, and pulled him out of the cell, glad that Aerith was no longer available to Cloud. She took one last look at Rude's naked body and then looked at Cloud and sighed. "You sure can pick 'em, Aerith." Tifa said as the cell door closed again.

"What is she talking about submitting to him?" Cloud asked Tifa as they left the cell row.

Tifa sighed again, forgetting that Cloud hasn't had much of the real world education that she got from running a bar. "It means that they've decided Rude is her dominant and she's his submissive. I'll tell you more when we get home." She wished he would be more dominant and less reactionary.

"I'm sorry about the interruption, Master." Aerith said a few moments later. She was trying to calm down about the mood being ruined.

"You didn't want to escape?" he asked her.

"No, I won't leave without Marlene. And we'd get spotted if we tried to get out with her." Aerith explained.

Rude was glad she seemed so attached to his niece, and kissed her neck in gratitude as he caressed her body. "What do you want, Cetra?" he asked as he felt the mood return.

"I want to fully belong to my Master." Aerith replied, smiling.

"Say it." he said in a more demanding tone as he lubed himself up.

"Fuck me, Master! Fuck me until I scream!" Aerith obediently exclaimed.

Rude pushed her legs slightly apart and thrust himself into her. She felt herself crying out in almost a scream from the pain of her anal passage forced to accommodate the largeness of him, and when she tried to position herself more comfortably, he gripped her hips tightly and thrust harder. Her eyes were watering as he pinched her hip.

"You aren't screaming, Cetra." Rude pointed out in a warning tone.

"I'm sorry, Master." Aerith started screaming for him to violate her more, then she felt his thrusts stop and gasped at the sudden change.

"Now you're all mine, aren't you Cetra?" Rude asked as he gently patted her behind.

"Yes. Thank you so much, Master." Aerith sighed gratefully that not only was the pain over, but she had now been taken by him everywhere she could be. No doubt her rear end would get used to accommodating him with practice, the rest of her had.

"Now it's bedtime, and we'll work on that more in the morning." Rude said as he untied her.

Aerith rubbed her wrists before snuggling up to Rude. Submitting to him was such a wonderfully freeing feeling, to have pleasing him as her only concern. But their visitors reminded her that the other concerns were mounting on her doorstep. She snuggled closer to Rude and closed her eyes, waiting to see what the morning would bring as she prayed to the planet for a way to make everything work out.

* * *

Aerith woke up first, her naked body still entwined with Rude's on the small bed. She sighed as she realized her newest dream was the planet's answer to her prayer. She trusted the planet more than anything, she just didn't want to leave her cell yet. Rude woke up then, smiling at her while slapping her firm bottom and ordering her into position.

"Your ass is so addicting, I almost want to pass you around so others know how good you feel." Rude said as he thrust into her. Aerith shuddered at the thought of others violating her, then winced as she was forced to accommodate him again. She reveled in being submissive to Rude, but didn't want to include anyone else. She kept quiet as he satiated himself, relieved that it didn't hurt as much now that he had broken her in. "You're awfully quiet, Cetra. You don't want to be passed around?"

"No, Master. I want to serve only you." Aerith truthfully replied.

"Good girl." He kissed the small of her back, which Aerith had come to realize was his way of letting her know he was pleased by her performance. "I don't want to share you myself, but I might have to if you ever quit being a good girl." Rude informed her as the slot in the cell door opened and two trays of food were deposited on the floor. "It looks like it's breakfast time, Cetra. Bring me my tray."

They ate their meal in silence, and then began their usual routine. Rude handcuffed her to the chair and stood over her, holding up a ready fist. "Will you show us the Promised Land?" he asked her, starting to swing his fist to strike her when she gave her refusal.

"Yes, Master." Aerith announced.

"What?" Rude was stunned and his arm froze mid-swing. "You will?"

"Yes. It's time." Aerith said.

Rufus entered her cell as Tseng and the other Turks waited outside. She was dressed in one of Rude's shirts since her outfit had been ripped too much.

"So you have finally come to your senses, Aerith?" Rufus asked her.

"I will show you the Promised Land, but he must come with us." Aerith indicated Rude. "And Marlene comes too."

"Very well." Rufus said after staring at her hard for a moment. "We leave in two hours. Get her something proper to wear." he ordered Tseng before leaving the cell.

Left alone with Rude again, she turned to him and smiled. "We've got two hours to kill, however shall we pass the time, Master?"

"On your knees." Rude told her as he took off his belt.

When Aerith was marched out to the helicopter, she was wearing a spare of Elena's suit, and it was close enough to her size, but she would have preferred a loose dress. Most of her body was sore, even body parts she didn't even know she had, from Rude's domination of her as they squeezed as much as they could into those two hours, and she walked with difficulty. He lifted her into the helicopter, and she sighed as her body recognized his touch. Marlene was already seated, trying to be brave, and Aerith sat down next to her and held her hand.

"Take off." Rufus ordered Reno once he was seated.

When they arrived at the coordinates Aerith gave them, they all disembarked except for Reno who opted to stay in his bird, and they looked around in disappointment at the barren land.

"You lied to us, there is no Promised Land here." Rufus angrily took out his gun and pointed it at her head.

"Wait." Aerith said calmly, and dropped to her knees to pray. Soon they saw a shimmering in the air before her, and it deepened and darkened until a cave entrance was revealed. Aerith stood up and dusted off her knees. "Everybody in!"

"You first, Aerith, with the girl." Rufus demanded, wary of her.

"Very well." Aerith led Marlene into the cave, and everyone filed in behind her, except Elena who guarded the entrance. They walked deep into the cavern maze, Aerith confidently leading the way until she stopped in front of a chamber entrance. "What you seek is in there." she told them all.

Rufus and Tseng went in, sensing some serious power in the beautiful cavern chamber, eagerly hoping this was their unlimited source of mako. Rude started to go in after them when Aerith grabbed his hand and shook her head. He turned his head to look back into the chamber and saw what looked like Sephiroth approaching Tseng and Rufus. He was about to pull his hand free from hers when Aerith slapped her other hand on the cave wall. Suddenly the ground started rumbling and the entrance to the chamber turned into solid rock.

"Take Marlene and run for the entrance!" Aerith shouted at Rude. "Don't look back!"

He hesitated for a moment until he heard unearthly screams coming from the chamber. Picking up his niece, he ran out, and he was never sure how he found his way out of the maze, but eventually he ran into Elena at the entrance. As soon as he left the caverns, the entrance shimmered and disappeared. Realizing Aerith wasn't behind him, he tried to find the entrance again, he tried putting his hands out, expecting to feel the stone of the caverns, but he only succeeded in falling down.

"What's going on? Where are Rufus and Tseng, and the Ancient?" Elena asked him.

"I don't know." Rude reluctantly admitted.

"She's got to go stop Meteor. She told me that it'll all be okay and we don't have to worry." Marlene informed them.

* * *

"What is it, Aerith?" Tifa asked, noticing her unhappy expression as she sat down at the bar.

"It's been two months since Meteorfall was stopped, and Rude hasn't even as much as said hello to me. I see him in here every time I drop in, but he ignores me. It's not like I'm the one who killed his bosses, I didn't even know that Sephiroth was going to be there! I was only supposed to let the planet deal with them." Aerith complained.

Tifa nodded automatically, having frequently heard her go on about Rude since that day, and what a day it was. Sephiroth had expected Aerith to be with Cloud, and his anger at having his surprise attack foiled had nearly killed them all. He had been defeated, but not without cost. Yuffie, Vincent, Cid, and Red XIII had escaped with relatively minor injuries, Tifa herself ended up with nerve damage in her leg that sometimes kept her in bed from the pain, Cloud barely survived, but sadly Barret hadn't. Aerith was successful in her secret journey and summoned Holy to destroy Meteor before too much of Midgar was destroyed. Marlene was now living with her Uncle Rude, but she still spent plenty of time with Cloud and Tifa to help her adjust.

"Why don't you approach him?" Tifa asked her.

"He's the dominant one, and that's what I want. I want him to dominate the **fuck** out of me in the alleyway!" Aerith downed her shot glass in one gulp, thinking how she should have known she was a submissive long ago when most of her sexual fantasies involved being bound and sometimes gagged or blindfolded.

"Honey, it doesn't matter. Even the most dominant man on the planet is going to be clueless enough to need some sense knocked into him once in a while." Tifa told her.

Aerith mulled over her advice, and she was glad that Tifa at least accepted her choice. Cloud was still a bit pissy over it.

"You don't look that happy, partner." Reno said to Rude as they drank their beer and ate pretzels at their table.

Rude barely heard him, he was staring at Aerith. He had wondered if their behavior in her cell was only due to their captor/prisoner dynamics, but he still wanted to dominate her. He kept trying to think of how to approach her without it being misconstrued if she wasn't interested anymore, now that she was free. Reno had occasionally mentioned that there were clubs he could go to where he could find other submissives, but Rude was only interested in Aerith.

"Hey, are you even here?" Reno threw a pretzel at him, and it bounced off Rude's face and landed in his beer.

"I'll take a burger." Rude turned his head to look at Reno and took a sip of his beer, then turned back to look at Aerith, surprised to see her approaching their table. He stood up and greeted her neutrally.

"How is Marlene?" Aerith wanted to know.

"Oh, she's great. I found a great private school for her." Rude said. "She talks about you frequently."

"Can I visit her sometime?" Aerith asked.

"Oh, I'd like that a lot. I mean…uh…she'd like that a lot." Rude replied.

"Great, here's my number." Aerith handed him a folded piece of paper that seemed to have something in it, then walked away.

Rude wondered at the odd gleam in her eye until he opened the paper to find a pair of handcuffs with the key and the message _Cetra_ _is waiting in the alleyway for her Master_ on it. He smiled and left without so much as a goodbye to Reno.

"What the hell is up with him?" Reno wondered, then shrugged and signaled for his bill.

Aerith was waiting by a fire escape in the alleyway, smiling when she saw him.

"Hands up in the air." he gruffly told her.

"Yes, Master." Aerith obeyed, feeling herself getting turned on as he cuffed her wrists to the fire escape ladder above her head, then ran his hands up her legs under her short skirt and yanked her panties off.

"You're not wearing those anymore tonight." Rude unfastened his pants. "But you need something else…" Rude stared at her and then took her scarf off and tied it around her mouth, gagging her. "You need to be quiet here, don't you, Cetra?"

When Aerith nodded, he picked up her legs and wrapped them around his waist. She cried out into her scarf as he entered her, her hands clenching and unclenching as she felt herself heading for the stars again, oblivious to the cold ladder pressing into her back.

Reno was leaving the bar and heading home when he stopped in front of the alleyway. Rude and Aerith were too lost in their own pleasure to notice him staring with bugged eyes for a few moments before he kept walking as he took out his cellphone and dialed a number. "What are you doing tonight, Elena?" he asked.

"Thank you, Master." Aerith told him when he ungagged her. Her leg muscles were a little tense, but she didn't care. Rude undid the handcuffs and Aerith's arms wrapped around his neck and she kissed him. "You've fulfilled one of my fantasies, please let me fulfill one of yours, Master."

Rude stared at her for a moment and then smiled as he remembered something. "I'll go pay my bill, then we'll go somewhere you can scream as loud as you want." He put her down and waited for her to get her shoes back on before he took her hand and led her back into the bar, leaving enough money on his table to cover his bill and leave a generous tip.

"What is this, Tifa?" one of the new barmaids asked her, holding something out in her hand for Tifa to see.

"That's a handcuff key. Where'd you find it?" Tifa asked her.

"It was with the cash someone left to pay their bill when they left while I was serving another customer." the barmaid explained.

Tifa laughed. "Oh, someone's gonna have a rude awakening."

"Say it again!" Rude demanded. "Say it or I'll pass you around!" he snapped when Aerith hesitated.

"I want to be punished!" Aerith cried out as the belt landed on her back again. Rude had taken her to a dungeon, and made her strip and get on her knees before tying her arms to poles around six feet apart. He was behind her, so she never saw him take off his belt, but she felt it when he started whipping her. She had been too shocked to react at first, but soon she was crying out as she realized she was being publicly whipped while naked. Hot tears fell down her face and she wondered how much more she would have to endure.

"Do you want to continue pleasing your Master, Cetra?" Rude suddenly asked her.

"Ye…yes, Master." Aerith managed to say with difficulty.

"Good girl." Rude knelt behind her and kissed her neck as he spread her legs apart slightly.

Aerith felt him shove his lubed member into her ass, and she was surprised that not only had her body adjusted to him so that he fit inside her better now, but it felt better as well. She found herself enjoying it more than she expected to, and started moaning.

"You really do enjoy pleasing me, don't you, Cetra?" Rude asked her as he started caressing her.

"Oh yes, Master!" Aerith breathed.

"You are a very good girl, Cetra." Rude said as she once again gave him such exquisite relief. She was so perfect, and she was his.

"Thank you, Master." Aerith gratefully replied. The pain of the whipping had started to fade with the pleasure of him fucking her, and his rewarding her with high praise obliterated the rest of it.

"Let's get back to my place. It's soundproof." he told her with a smile as he untied her and helped her stand. While Aerith was getting dressed again, another couple bumped into her, and Rude was about to take umbrage at it until he noticed the jostling had exposed a little of the tall man's red hair from his costume. "Reno?" he asked in surprise.

Reno's eyes bugged out again as he saw his partner and Aerith. "Uh…hi."

"Great way to be incognito!" Elena snapped at Reno as she walked up next to him on all fours, wearing a costume that exposed her breasts and genitals but hid her face. "I only agreed to this because you said no one would recognize us!"

"Excuse me, can I use the…" A woman in classy dominatrix gear started to ask them, then froze as she recognized Rude and Aerith.

"Tifa!" Aerith blurted out. "If you're here, does that mean…?"

Tifa reluctantly tugged at the leash she was holding and Cloud came forward. He was topless with leather crotchless pants and a spiky leather dog collar. His hands were also tied together in front of him. Everyone just stood there awkwardly until Rude and Aerith made their excuses and hurried back to his place, then Tifa and Cloud decided that the mood was dead and headed home as well. Reno managed to convince Elena to stick around for a while.

* * *

"Good night, Marlene." Aerith closed the book she had been reading and kissed her on the forehead before carefully getting out of the bed and turning off the light. It was a month after the dungeon debacle, and it was fast becoming a weekly routine to spend a movie night with him and Marlene.

"Is she asleep?" Rude asked quietly as he came down the hallway.

"Yes, finally. I had to read her three books." Aerith told him.

"Then it's our bedtime now." Rude took Aerith's hand and led her to his bedroom, where he promptly undressed and handcuffed her to his bed. "Now remember, it's only my room that's actually soundproof, so be as loud as you want, Cetra."

"As you wish, Master." Aerith replied with a smile.

"What would you think about moving in with us?" Rude asked her when they were done.

Aerith stared at him. "Already?"

"Marlene is very fond of you, and so am I." Rude said.

"I'll have to think about it." Aerith told him, though she knew she'd probably end up saying yes, she still wanted time to catch her breath over it all. "Could you please uncuff me now?"

"Sure." Rude grabbed a key but it didn't work. He tried all the handcuff keys he could find, but none of them worked. "Uh…I don't have the key." he admitted.

"What? Are you kidding me?" Aerith stared at him, none too pleased, but her sense of the ridiculousness soon overcame her anger. "You were serious about me staying here, weren't you?" She started laughing.

"I can fix it." Rude remembered his lock-picking kit, and he freed Aerith a few minutes later.

"I tell you what, if you promise not to do that again, I'll move in with you." Aerith heard herself say.

"Deal!" Rude's expression lit up as he kissed her.


End file.
